Do you remember my post earlier talking about my mission to increase my breast milk? Well I would like to report in now that it has been a few weeks of my milk overhaul.
Today I went in for more steroids because of the problems I am having walking again. (Read that post here) So I am clearly pumping and dumping until Noon tomorrow to make sure the steroids are out of my system. If you didn’t know much about breast milk production you make the most milk in the morning hours due to a hormone cycle and as the day wears on you produce less and less.
So I pumped on my way to the neurologist, around 10:30 am, and got 2 ounces due to the fact that he had just eaten. I was OK with that. Then I pumped again after his pediatrician appointment, around 2 pm, and got about 2.25 ounces. Then I pumped after a beautiful nap courtesy of my Mother, around 6 pm, and got 3 ounces. My final pump for this day was at 10:15 pm and got another 2 ounces so that is just over 9 ounces for the day after he ate all morning. I pumped again at 7 am and got 4 ounces and again at noon yielding 2.75 ounces to make sure I pumped a full 24 hours after my steroids. So that is almost 16 ounces up from 5 ounces!
If you read my post with the cookie recipe you will see that I was producing about 5 ounces a day towards the end of my last steroid stretch. I am pleased with the results so far. Here is what I have been doing!
Drinking 16 ounces (2 tea bags) of Mother’s Milk tea a day, eating a diet of 90% lactation cookies and taking 9 pills of Fenugreek a day. But I was bad and forgot to take them yesterday so I could be reporting lower numbers of milk today because of that.
I think if you didn’t have the financial resources to try everything that I have been trying out you should try the Fenugreek pills first! Since I have been taking 9 pills a day I have really noticed the biggest change. I am getting engorged again, I am leaking from one side while he feeds on the other and he is showing satisfaction for an hour or so after feeding on both sides. When he isn’t fully satisfied I only have to supplement a 4 ounce bottle compared to a 6 ounce bottle.
I have also noticed that his poops are becoming more and more breast milk poops with a little bit of formula poop mixed in. That is a great indication of his eating habits right now. I am a bit obsessed with monitoring his poops just to see what is coming out so I can compare it to what is going in 🙂
Now you might have noticed that I said I had been eating 90% cookies everyday. This isn’t an exaggeration by any means! For two weeks straight I ate those cookies and still lost 7 pounds! Holy cow! How am I still losing the weight right? I am officially 12 pounds lighter than what I was pre baby! So far pregnancy is the BEST DIET EVER! hahaha
Here is a before and after:
Before delivery
4 weeks after and 5 pounds lighter than start
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